MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION RULES
TRANSGENDER PEOPLE COVERED UNDER STATE LAW
TRANSGENDER
LAW AND POLICY INSTITUTE NEWS
RELEASE
October 2001
For
more information, contact:
Jennifer
Levi, Esq., Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD),
294 Washington Street, Suite 740, Boston, MA 02108, (617) 426-1350 |
Shannon
Minter, National Center for Lesbian Rights, 870 Market Street,
Suite 570, San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 392-6257
email: minter@nclrights.org |
In two landmark decisions issued on October 10, 2001, the
Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled that transgender
people are protected under Massachusetts state laws prohibiting sex and
disability discrimination. These
decisions are the latest victories in an emerging trend among state and
federal courts reversing cases from the 1970s and early 1980s in which
transgender people were excluded from the civil rights protections.
Jennifer
Levi, a staff attorney for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders who
has successfully litigated several
cases in New England on behalf of transgender clients, commented, “This is
a tremendously important decision for transgender people that affirms the
recent trend we have seen in which courts and agencies have corrected the
historical error of excluding transgender people from legal protections.”
In
concluding that transgender people are covered by the prohibition against
sex discrimination, the decisions rely on a 1989 United States Supreme Court
case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, in which Ann Hopkins, an
accounting firm associate was denied partnership because many of the
partners thought she was too masculine, macho, and aggressive.
In its decision, the Supreme Court explained that enforcing sex
stereotypes is a form of sex discrimination.
The Commission’s rulings recognize that discrimination against
transgender people is often grounded in this same type of discrimination –
discrimination based on a perception that the person does not conform to sex
stereotypes.
The
Commission’s decisions also make clear that, unlike the federal disability
laws, Massachusetts’ disability law does not exclude transgender people
from protection. As long as a transgender person is otherwise able to
demonstrate that he or she is “a qualified individual with a handicap,”
that person is entitled to protection from discrimination based on the
person’s disability.
Shannon
Minter, senior staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights who
has successfully litigated cases on behalf of transgender people said, “At
this point, the case law is increasingly clear that transgender people are
protected under sex and, where appropriate in individual cases, disability
discrimination laws. Every
court to consider these questions in the past ten years has arrived at the
same conclusion. There is no
principled reason, legal or otherwise, to graft an exclusion onto
non-discrimination laws for transgender people.”
The
Commission’s decisions are consistent with recent state court cases in
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, federal court decisions from
California and Massachusetts, as well as administrative decisions in
Connecticut, Florida, and Illinois. It
also reflects legislative developments in Minnesota, Rhode Island and the
District of Columbia as well as over 30 local jurisdictions to explicitly
include transgender people in their non-discrimination laws.
The Transgender Law & Policy Institute tracks current developments in legal
and public policy issues affecting transgender people and their families and
provides legal, medical, and social science resources to attorneys and
others advocating on behalf of transgender individuals.